School blown up in Mohmand Agency

GHALLANI: A state run boy’s school was blown up in Mohmand Agency on Monday. The number of destroyed schools in Mohmand has been recorded at 110, where about 30 are under construction.

The school Malik Meer Dad is located in Mozi Kor Ghazi Baig area of upper Mohmand Tehsil Haleemzai. The two-room school building was partially destroyed as a result of the explosion.

Twelve people, including the school owner, have been arrested in the search operation under the joint responsibility clause of the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR), said Upper Mohmand Assistant Political Agent Jamshed Khan.

Mohmand agency is among those tribal agencies where educational institutions have faced such attacks. Safi is the most affected areawhere about 80 percent of the schools have been destroyed.

Educational activities were not in progress yet in these areas, with exception of those where the Pakistan Army has made and rebuilt institutions like Soran pass. The remaining schools are in the pipeline for reconstruction with UAE Government assistance. These schools were closed in 2008 due to militancy in the area and the education department announced in 2011 that all these schools were reopened.

According to Sajjid Khan, a student of Lakaro Safi, GHS Lakaro was closed in 2008 and has not been reopened. The government has shown the school as open in the paper, said Sajjid. He goes to GHS Nahqi Haleemzai which is about 15 km away from his house.

Mohmand Agency PA Khushal Khan, in his speech on 14 August, urged the tribal elders to help the admin reopen such ghost schools and said that he will terminate all those who fail to deliver in future.

FATA which is bordering Afghanistan is a militancy hit area where about 476 educational institutions have been destroyed according to FATA education department statistics. The Government, Pakistani army and different NGOs are working on rebuilding it, as a majority of the residents have migrated and their children are now studying in the areas they migrated to while others have left studies due to migration.